To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
--SHAKSPERE.
I was a little disappointed at first to find that, wherever I went
in the parish of Flixton, the inhabitants showed no strong interest
in the quaint man of genius, whose early records I was in search of.
But this is no wonder, when one considers what a thinly-inhabited
place this must have been at the beginning of Queen Anne's reign; and
remembering, also, that nearly the whole of Tim's long life was spent
elsewhere; first, as an apprentice to Dutch-loom weaving, which was
looked upon as a rather genteel occupation in those days. But, as his
friend and biographer, Richard Townley, Esq., of Bellfield Hall, says,
"such a sedentary employment not at all agreeing with his volatile
spirits and eccentric genius, he prevailed upon his master to release
him from the remainder of his servitude. Though then very young, he
soon commenced itinerant schoolmaster; going about the country from
one small town to another, to teach reading, writing, and accounts;
and generally having a night-school as well as a day one." Now, seeing
that the theatre of these obscure and honourable struggles of Tim's
youth was the town of Oldham, and the villages thereabouts, it is not
surprising that the scattered inhabitants of the lonely nook where he
was born should have few traditional remembrances of him, who left
them when he was yet but a child. Tim's father was only forty years
old, when he was overtaken by total blindness; and, this, necessarily,
changed the plan he had formed of bringing up his son, our hero, to the
Church, for "he had conceived a favourable opinion of his abilities."
Now, this calamity did not befall the elder Mr. Collier during the time
that he was schoolmaster at Urmston in Flixton: and everything shows
that he was not a native of that place, but came from some other part
to teach there; remaining only for a short time--during which Tim and
his brother Nathan were born--and then moving away again, with his
young family of nine children, to another quarter. What Baines says,
on the authority of the inhabitants of Flixton, of the elder Collier
never being a clergyman, may be true, so far as it relates to Urmston,
of which place there never was a curate; nor was he in holy orders
during his residence there; and yet he may have been so elsewhere.
This supposition is strengthened by Tim's own words: "In the reign
of Queen Anne I was a boy, and one of the nine children of a poor
Lancashire curate, whose stipend never amounted to thirty pounds a
year; and consequently the family must feel the iron teeth of penury
with a witness. These, indeed, were sometimes blunted by the charitable
disposition of the good rector (the Rev. Mr. H----, of W----n)."
What an interesting glimpse this gives us of the home of Tim Bobbin's
childhood! Now, it is just possible that the "good rector" may have
been the rector of Warrington of that time; whose name begins with the
same initial letter. All things considered, I did not wonder that the
family had left but little mark among the people of Flixton.
Seeing that so little was known by the inhabitants, I turned my
thoughts towards the parish register, setting an afternoon apart for
visiting the incumbent; who had invited me to look through it at his
house. At the appointed time, I walked through the village of Flixton,
a little way into the country beyond the village; and there, by the
wayside, at the top of a little sloping lawn, partially screened by
stunted trees and bushes, the "village preacher's modest mansion
rose." The incumbent received me courteously, and entered kindly
into my purpose. Ushering me into a little parlour at the front, he
brought forth the two oldest register volumes of the parish from their
hiding-place. The first thing which struck me was the difference in
their condition. The oldest was perfectly sound, inside and outside.
Its leaves were of vellum; and, with the exception of a slight
discolouration in some places, they were as clear and perfect as ever
they had been; and the entries in it were beautifully distinct, written
in the old English character, and mostly in the Latin language. The
change in the latter volume was very remarkable. Its binding was poor
and shaky; and its leaves of the softest and most perishable writing
paper, many of them quite loose in the book, and so worn, tattered,
and crumbly, as to be scarcely touchable without damage. I could not
help thinking that if any important question should arise a hundred
years hence, the settling of which depended on such a mouldering
record as this, is was just possible that decay might have forestalled
the inquiry. After a careful examination of the register, I found
the following entries relating to Tim's family, and, besides these,
there is no mention of any other person of the name of Collier, for
the space of half a century before, and a century after that date.
First, under the head of "Births and Baptismes, in the year, 1706,"
appears "Nathan, ye son of John Collier, schoolmaster, borne May 17,
baptised May 31."[15] Singularly, I found the same baptism entered
a second time, three pages forward in the same year, with a slight
variation, in the following manner:--"Baptised Nathan, the son of
_Master_ John Collier, schoolmaster, born May ye 18th." And then the
last and only other mention of the Colliers, is the register of the
baptism of John, the renowned "Tim Bobbin," which is entered thus,
among the baptisms of the year 1710: "John, son of Mr. John Collier,
of Urmstone, baptised January the 6th." In Baines's "Lancashire," the
baptism is given as occurring in 1709, which is a slight mistake. The
origin of that mistake was evident to me, with the register before
my eyes. The book seems to have been very irregularly kept in those
days; and the baptisms in the year 1709 are entered under a headline,
"Baptisms in the year 1709:" but at the end of the baptisms of that
year, the list runs on into those of the following year, 1710, without
any such headline to divide them; and this entry of Tim's baptism being
one of the first, might easily be transcribed by a hasty observer,
as belonging to the previous year. I thought there was something
significant about the curious manner in which these three entries,
relating to the Colliers, are made in the register. In the first entry
of the baptism of Nathan, Tim's eldest brother, the father is called
"John Collier, schoolmaster;" in the second entry of the same baptism,
he is called "Master John Collier, schoolmaster;" and in the entry of
Tim's baptism, three years later, the clerk, having written down the
father's name as "John Collier of Urmstone," has, upon after-thought,
made a caret between "the son of" and "John Collier of Urmstone," and
carefully written "Mr." above it, making it read "Mr. John Collier,
of Urmstone." This addition to the names of schoolmasters, or even
of the wealthy inhabitants of the parish, occurs so very rarely in
the register, that I could not help thinking this singular exception
indicative of an honourable estimate of the character of Tim's father
among his neighbours. Such was the result of my search; and it
strengthens my conviction that old Mr. John Collier's family were not
natives of Flixton, nor dwelt there long, but departed after a short
residence to some other quarter, where the family were born, married,
died, and buried; except the two before mentioned.
[15] Old style.
Whilst I was sitting in the incumbent's parlour, looking over these old
books on that day, a little thing befell which pleased me, though the
reader may think it trifling. The weather was very cold, and I happened
to have on one of those red-and-black tartan wool shirts, which are
comfortable wear enough in cold weather, though they look rather
gaudy; and don't satisfy one's mind so well as a clean white shirt
does. As I sat turning over the leaves of these ancient records, in
came the incumbent's son, a little, slim, intelligent boy, with large,
thoughtful eyes. He watched me attentively for two or three minutes,
and then, coming a little nearer, so as to get a good look at the
wrists and front of my extraordinary under-gear, he called out, with
unreserved astonishment, "Papa! he has got no shirt on!" The clergyman
checked the lad instantly; though he could not help smiling at this
little burst of frank, childish simplicity. The lad was evidently
surprised to see me enjoy the thing so much.
I cannot dismiss this old parish register without noticing some other
things in it which were interesting to me. And I can tell thee,
reader, by the by, that there are worse ways of spending a few hours
than in poring over such a record. How significantly the births,
marriages, and deaths, tread upon one another's heels; as they do in
the columns of newspapers! How solemnly the decaying pages represent
the chequered pattern of our mortal estate! The exits and entrances of
these ephemeral players in the drama of life continually interweave in
the musty chronicle, as they do in the current of human action. There
was a quaint tone running through the whole, which I could not well
pass by. In the year 1688, the phrase, "buried in woollen only," first
appears, and marks the date of an act for the encouragement of the
woollen trade. This phrase is carefully added to every registration of
burial, thenceforth for a considerable time; except in a few cases,
where the phrase changes to "buried in sweet flowers only." What a
world of mingled pathos and prettiness that phrase awakes in the mind!
To a loving student of Shakspere, it might, not inaptly, call up that
beautiful passage in Ophelia's burial scene:--
_Laertes._ Lay her i' the earth;--
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring!...
_Queen._ Sweets to the sweet: Farewell!
(_Scattering Flowers._)
Sometimes an instance occurs where a burial takes place "in linen
only." In this year of 1688, it is singular that there are only two
marriages entered in the Flixton parish register. There was, perhaps,
some particular reason for this at the time; but the fact will give the
reader some idea of the smallness of the population in those days. From
this time the phrase, "Sworn by so-and-so, before Justice so-and-so,"
is attached to some entries of burial, as thus:--"Thomas, ye son of
John Owen, of Carrington, buried in sweet floweres, attested by ye wife
of George Twickins. Ye same day of burial, viz., 10th Oct. (1705),
John, ye son of John Millatt, jun., of Carrington, an infant, buried
in sweet floweres only." Then follows, "James Parren was not buried in
any materiall contrary to a late act for Buryinge in Woollen.--Sworne
by Mary Parren, before Justice Peter Egerton, Jan. 28th, 1705." The
burials in the year 1706 are almost all in "sweet floweres only." This
is the year when Nathan Collier was born, being the first mention of
that family in the register. Three years after, his brother John (Tim
Bobbin) was born; after which the Colliers disappear from the register
altogether. Some of the burials occurring between 1720 and 1726, are
remarkable for the manner of their entry, as, "Sarah, daughter of
Schoolmaster Pony;" "James, Thomas Jaddock's father;" "John Swindell,
taken out of ye river;" "Widow Peer's child, Aug. 5th;" and this
is followed three days after by "Richd., son of Widow Peer's, Aug.
30th;" "Old Ralph Haslam, from Carrington;" "Old Henery Roile, from
Stretford;" "Old Mrs. Starkey;" "Old John Groons;" "Moss's wife of
Urmeston;" "Horox's child of Urmstone;" and "Hannah, daughter of one
Dean, of Stretford." Then come these, in their proper order, entered
in a clerkly hand:--"Thomas Willis, of Bleckly, in the county of
Buckingham, Esq., and Mrs. Ann Hulme, Heiress of Davy Hulme, and of
the lordship and manor of Urmston, were marry'd. Sept. 3rd, 1735;" and
then "Anna Willis, the first daughter of Thomas Willis, Esq., born
August the 11th, 1736, and baptised ye 14th Aug.--JOHN WILLIS, clerk of
Bleckley, in Bucks." I found the Christian name of Randal very common
in this register. The names of Starkey, Holt, Rogers, and Egerton, ever
accompanied by the title of gentleman; and for the rest, the names of
Warburton, Taylor, Royle, Coupe, Darbishire, Shawcross, Gilbody, and
Knight, form the staple of the list, with the addition of the Owens of
Carrington Moss; who seem to have been a very prolific generation.